Bottle vending machine



April 1962 J. c. STURROCK ETAl 3,029,980

BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE Filed March 5, 1959 6 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORS J'omv 6! STURROCK 1 fol/IV M. SHAY ATTORNEYS April 1962 J. c. STURROCK ETAL 3,029,980

BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 5, 1959 m m M Jbmv 6. STl/RROCK J'obw M. Show ATTORNEYS A ril 17, 1962 Filed March 5, 1959 J. C. STURROCK ETAL BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 April 1962 J. c. STURROCK ETAL 3,029,980

BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed March 5, 1959 April 17, 1962 J. c. STURROCK ETAL 3,029,980

BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE Filed March 5, 1959 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 April 17, 1962 J. c. STURROCK ETAL 3,029,980

BOTTLE VENDING MACHINE Filed March 5, 1959 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 FIG: 15

INVENTORS J'obw asn/naoc .F IE 1 BY fol/ v A7. 57/4) 4 rramvens Unite tates 3,029,980 BOTTLE VENDlNG MACHINE John C. Sturrock and John M. Shay, Minneapolis, Minn.,

assignors to Steeimade Inc., Minneapolis, Minn, a corporation of Minnesota 1 Filed Mar. 5, 1959, Ser. No. 797,421 2 Claims. (Cl. 221-125) This invention relates to apparatus for vending containers having tapered necks such as beverage bottles.

There are, of course, many types of bottle dispensers in use today. Among these, one of the most desirable, in view of the great range of selection possible, is the type where the selected bottle is manually Withdrawn from the machine. It is with this pull out type of dispenser that the present invention is concerned.

A principal object of the invention is to provide an upright coin-controlled vending machine adapted to hold several rows of bottles laying on their sides with their capped ends directed toward the front of the machine to be respectively and gravitationally fed into a series of aligned discharge stations, and having a closure means over the discharge stations at the front of the machine for exposing said bottle capped ends While prohibiting withdrawal thereof until the proper amount of coins have been deposited, and whereafter withdrawal of a bottle from one station automatically locks the closure means for the other stations.

Another object of the invention is to provide a botttle dispensing machine having a plurality of bottle discharge stations for holding different varieties of beverages with improved means of automatically replenishing the supply of bottles in said stations as they are discharged therefrom.

Another object of the invention is to provide a bottle dispensing machine having an automatically refillable discharge station from which a selected bottle is manually Withdrawn and having means prohibiting refilling of the station until the withdrawal operation has been completed.

With the above mentioned and other objects in view the invention broadly comprises an upright casing having a plurality of bottle holding racks extending crosswise thereof and inclined toward a plurality of vertically spaced discharge trays at one side of the casing. A vertical slide means is disposed at one end of the discharge trays to s'lidably hold a plurality of vertically stacked closure elements, each adapted to be moved upwardly as the bottle from the adjacent tray is withdrawn therepast. A locking means is provided for holding the elements down against one another and there is coin-controlled means for releasing the locking means. A locking bar mounted beside the closure elements is moved into a position to lock the remaining closure elements when any one thereof is moved for discharging a bottle. A gate is swingably mounted between each discharge tray and the rack supplying bottles thereto. This gate is normally freely swingable but is automatically locked when the adjacent closure element is operated to restrain additional bottles from entering the tray. The discharge trays are tiled rearwardly. These and other features of the construction will subsequently be described in greater detail.

The above mentioned and still additional objects of the invention will be brought'to light during the course of the following specification, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which- FIG. 1 is a front elevation of the dispenser with the normally closed front door of the case in open position to allow observation of the internal mechanism.

FIG. 2 is a cross section through the dispenser taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1 and looking downward.

3,029,980 Patented Apr. 17, 19612 :ice

FIG. 3 is a vertical section through the dispenser taken along the line 33 of FIG. 1 and looking toward the bottle discharge area and with the discharge mechanism inoperative.

PEG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken on line 33 of FIG. 1 and showing a bottle partially removed from one of the discharge trays and the locking mechanism in an intermediate position.

FIG. 5 is a front elevation of the portion of the dispenser shown in FIG. 4 and with the mechanism in the same relative condition.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 4 with one of the closure elements fully open and the locking mechanism in fully locked position.

PEG. 7 is a front elevation of the portion of the dispenser shown in FIG. 4 and with the mechanism in the same relative condition.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary transverse vertical section taken on line 88 of FIG. 6 and looking forwardly.

FIG. 9 shows a modifiied construction of the bottle discharge gates or closure elements.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged front elevation of the coin slide mechanism for releasing the locking mechanism.

FIG. 11 is a plan view of the coin slide in releasing position and taken along line 1111 of FIG. 10.

PEG. 12 is a longitudinal section through the slide taken on line 12-12 of FIG. 11 with the slide in its outer or releasing position.

FIG. 13 is similar to FIG. 12 but shows the slide in retracted position.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings reference characters will be used to denote like parts or structural features in the different views.

ing upright type having a base structure 11, a lower compartment 12 for housing the necessary refrigerating mech-. anism, such as motor 13 and compressor 14, and an upper cabinet 15 having top wall 16, an irregular bottom wall 1'7, rear wall 18 and side walls 19 and 20 all of which walls are insulated and which jointly form a'forwardly opening article storing compartment 21. An insulated service door 22 (FIG. 1) is hinged to the side wall 20 for closing over the front of the case. This door has an access opening 23 near one side which is closed by a hinged door. A refrigerant coil unit 24 for carrying heat from the inside of compartment 21 is mounted on the bottom wall 17, as shown in FIG. 1. This coil is suitably connected to the refrigerating mechanism in compartment 12 for carrying gas supplied thereby. Walls 16, 1'7, 1%, 19, and 20 contain insulation material, as shown, so that when the service door 22 is closed over the front of the casing the upper cabinet 15 is sufliciently insulated to keep the compartment 21 cool.

it will be observed (FIG. 1) that the bottom wall 17 does not extend straight across the case but rather extends from wall 19 about two-thirds of the way across the case, then upwardly as at 25, then across to side wall 20 as at 26.

A slide means is mounted to extend vertically between the top wall 16 and the bottom wall portion 26 at the front of compartment 21. The front of the slide means is formed by a pair of transversely spaced members 28 and 29 having their upper ends connected to the top wall 16 and their lower ends connected to wall 26. These members are sheet metal channels, formed in cross section as best shown in FIG. 2, and respectively having flanges 30 and 31 along their rear edges which project toward one another on a common transverse vertical plane. It will be understood that the members 28 and 29 have the cross sectional shape shown in FIG. 2 throughout their lengths to assure the longitudinal strength thereof. A partition 34, spaced inwardly from side wall 20, extends The dispenser case: is denoted generally at 10. The case is a forward open-'- a forwardly from the back 18 to which it is secured and the front edge of the partition is bent outwardly as at (FIG. 2), then forwardly as at 36 with portion 36 secured to member 29. Partition portion 35 is in spaced rearwardly opposing relation to flange 31 to jointly therewith form an elongated vertical slide groove 37. An elongated member 38 having an L-shape in cross section has its forwardly extending flange leg secured to member 28 with a rear transverse flange 39 lying in rearwardly opposed spaced relation to flange 30 so as to jointly therewith form a slide groove 40 transversely opposing groove 37.

Member 38 carries a plurality of vertically spaced tray support brackets 41 which extend rearwardly from the edge of flange 39. A plurality of bottle holding trays 42 are mounted in fore and aft extending position along the inner side of partition 34, the trays having their rear ends secured to the back mounted flange on the partition and their forward ends secured to the adjacent bracket 41 and partition 34. These trays may be referred to as discharge stations and are vertically spaced in tilted parallelism, each tray slanting rearwardly as shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 6. In transverse cross section each tray has a shallow centrally dipped configuration (FIG. 8) such as to retain a cylindrical bottle laying thereon in transversely centered position. Flanges 44 depend from the sides of the tray. The uppermost tray support bracket 45 and lowermost bracket 46 extend respectively to the upper and lower ends of member 38.

On each of the brackets 41 there is mounted a small metal member configured to form a vertical socket 47. Transversely opposing the brackets 41 in the compartment and on side wall 19 there is mounted an elongated vertical bar 48 (FIGS. 1 and 2) which is provided with a series of apertures which are vertically spaced apart equal to the spacing of sockets 47. The lowermost of such apertures, however, is somewhat higher than the lowermost socket 47 and accordingly the uppermost aperture is also somewhat higher than the uppermost socket 47. Bar 48 and the various loops 47 cooperate to jointly support a plurality of rods 50 which extend in parallelism across the front portion of the compartment. Each rod has one end turned down as at 51 to be seated in a socket 47, the opposing end portion projecting through an aperture in bar 48. While the various rods 50 are parallel they slant downwardly toward the side of the casing on which the trays 42 are mounted as shown in FIG. 1. The rods are spaced apart a distance equal to that of the spacing of the trays .42 and the end of each rod seated in socket 47 is disposed beside and just above the top surface of the adjacent tray.

A plurality of bottle support racks or shelves 54 are mounted to extend transversely across the compartment 21 one behind each of the rods 50. Partition 34 is provided with a row of apertures 55 just above each tray 42 (FIG. 3). On the opposite side of the case a plurality of ledges 56 (FIG. 2) are mounted in vertically spaced positions along wall 19. These ledges slant rearwardly at thesarne angle as the trays 42 and are equally spaced therewith, the lowermost ledge, however, being somewhat higher than the lowermost tray 42. Each of the ledges 56 is provided with a series of apertures 57 (FIG. 2) in its rear end portion'which are spaced apart equally with the apertures 55. Each rack 54 is formed of a plate of sheet metal material with an upwardly projecting stop ledge 58'extending along the rear edge thereof. The rack is of suflicient length to have one end rest upon the ledge 56 and the other end upon one side of the tray 42. A positioning rod 59 is secured to extend along the back side of the tray portion 58 with one end extending therebeyond to extend through one of the apertures 55, while the other end of the rod is bent downwardly for seating in one of the ledge apertures 57.

Rack 54 is accordingly adjustable between various fore and aft positions to accommodate beverage bottles B of different lengths while yet having the neck of the bottle resting on rod 50. While one end of each rack 54 rests upon ledge 57, the other end overlays one of the shelves 42 at a slightly lower elevation. Accordingly, a row of bottles B disposed upon the rack will tend to roll downwardly toward the tray 42, it being understood, however, that the tray is large enough to hold only the endmost bottle in the row (FIG. 2).

The flanges 30 and 31 are sufficiently spaced to' allow the forward passage of a bottle B therebetween. This space, however, is closed by a plurality of closure elements or plates 61 which are stacked one above the other in edge-to-edge vertical alignment with their side edges slidably disposed in the tracks or grooves 37 and 40. The plates are accordingly vertically slidable in the hereinbefore described slide means.

The lowermost closure plate in the series is denoted at 62 and extends downwardly to a bottom plate 64 (FIG. 3) extending across the lower ends of members 38 and 36. The uppermost closure plate is denoted at 65. Each of the plates 61 has its upper and lower edges centrally cut away so that the mating cut-outs in the next adjacent plates jointly form an ovular window opening 66 located immediately fonvard of and slightly above each tray 42 whereby the capped front end of the bottle B laying in the tray 42 is disposed just behind the Window in a position to be manually grasped. The upper edge of plate 62 and the bottom edge of plate 65 are similarly cut away to form such windows or withdrawal openings with the next adjacent plates 61. The plates 61 have a vertical dimension equal to the distance between the shelves 42 so that there is one opening 66 for each tray 42.

It will now be understood that any selected bottle B among those which are disposed in'the discharge trays 42 is withdrawn from the machine by grasping the neck of the bottle and pulling the bottle outwardly through the opening 66. While the opening 66 has a vertical dimension narrower than the diameter of the body of bottle B, it is greater than the capped end thereof and as the tapered neck portion of the bottle is pulled through the opening will be expanded by the wedging action of the bottle forcing plates 61 above the opening upwardly in their tracks allowing the bottle to be pulled therethrough as Shown in FIGS. 4 and 6. After the bottle has been discharged the plates 61 will again gravitationally settle to their normal position shown in FIG. 1.

The mechanism for locking the plates to prohibit the separating movement above described until the required denomination of coins have been deposited in the machine will now be described, particular reference being made to FIGS. 5 and 7. A coin rejecting mechanism 68 is mounted on the panel 73 (FIG. 10) below the wall 26. A coin slide 69 is mounted in a fixed channel 70 below the coin ejector 68. When a predetermined denomination of coins is deposited in the slide it may be moved to the right, as viewed in FIGS. 5 and 7, allowing the coins to drop into the coin receptacle 71. The operation of the slide mechanism may best be observed by referring to FIGS. 10 through 13. The slide 69 is provided with spaced slots 112 and 114 for the reception of coins coming through the reject mechanism 68 and these slots may be slugged as designated at 115 in order to vary their effective length and accommodate the slots to coins of different denomination, one such coin being designated at C in FIGS. 10 and 12.

A retaining yoke having opposed arms 116117 is pivoted at one end at 118 to the channel 70 and at its other end to the telescopically related cross members 119- 120. In the normal inner position of slide 69 the mem bers 119-120 are positioned to engage a stop surface 121 on the upper portion of the slide as seen in FIG. 13 and thus prevent the outward travel of the slide which is necessary to release the gates 61. The insertion of the proper coins in the slide 69, however, will cause the members 119--120 to move upwardly raising the yoke as seenin FIG. 12 allowing surface 121 to move therepast.

Turning now to FIG. 1 it may be observed that an arm 74 is mounted on the uppermost slide plate 65 to extend laterally through an opening (not shown) in partition 34. The extended end of arm 34 is disposed behind the channel member 29 where it is connected to the upper end of a release rod 75. Rod 75 extends vertically downward fromarm 74 through the wall 26 and has its lower end pivoted to a ratchet member 76 which is pivotally mounted on panel 73 as by pin 77 for lateral swinging movement. A bell crank lever 78 is pivoted on pin 79 to panel 73 at a point just below the member 76. The lower end of lever 78 is connected to slide 69 by a link 80 while the upper end portion is longitudinally slotted as at 81 for sliding reception of lug 82 which projects forwardly from the ratchet member 76.

Ratchet member 76 has a toothed segment 84 along its bottom edge. A pawl 85 is pivotally mounted on panel 73 in position to engage the segment 84. Pawl 85 and lever 78 are tensioned toward their normal inoperative positions by springs 86 and 87 which are stretched re spectively between the pawl and lever and a panel mounted block 88.

It will be understood that the mechanism just described is normally in the condition shown in FIG. 1. When slide 69 is locked in position it locks the rod 75 and in turn plates 61 against elevation through the connections effected by ratchet element 76 and lever 78. When slide 69 is released, however, by the deposit of the required coin or coins, the members 78 and 76 are freed to move about their respective pivots and rod 75 is accordingly released. When the slide 69 is released as a bottle is pulled through one of the openings 66, rod 75 will be pulled upwardly by arm 74. This will cause ratchet member 76 to pivot inwardly, swinging lever 78 inwardly and progressively to the positions shown in FIGS. 5 and 7. As the ratchet portion 84 engages pawl 85 member 76 becomes locked against return movement until portion 84 has passed the pawl and the coins are dropped into receptacle 71.

In order that more than one bottle may not be withdrawn from the machine during the same operation cycle a means is provided for locking all of the plates 61 in unseparable position excepting those being separated by the bottle removed during the cycle. Each of the plates 61 and 65 has a finger projection 90 extending laterally through an aligned vertical slot 91 provided in the member 38 (FIG. 3). The finger normally rests at the bottom of the slot. An elongated locking bar 92 is mounted on the member 33 just behind the channel portion of member 28 for fore and aft swinging movement by means of links 94 having their forward ends pivoted at 95 to the member 38 and their rear ends pivoted at 96 to rearwardly extending projections 97 on the bar. links 94 angle downwardly and rearwardly so that if lifting pressure is applied to the bar it will move rearwardly as it is elevated. A stop 98 limits downward movement of the bar. At its upper end bar 92 has a portion 99 which extends rearwardly over the finger 90 on the plate 65. Below the portion 99 the bar 92 carries a series of rearwardly pointed locking teeth 100- positioned one immediately forward of each finger 90.

The projection 99 on the bar 92 lies just over the finger 90 on plate 65 as shown in FIG. 3. Plate 65 being the uppermost closure. element is, of course, elevated whenever a bottle is withdrawn through any of the openings 66. Accordingly as soon as the neck of a bottle being withdrawn begins its wedging action on the elements 61 to raise the elements thereabove (FIGS. 4 and 5) the finger 90 on plate 65 engages projection 99 and begins to raise the locking bar about the link axes 95. The bar is thus swung upwardly and rearwardly (FIGS. 4 and 6) with the teeth 100 moving into locking position under the fingers 90 on the elevated elements 61 and over fingers on the elements below the selected opening 66 through which the bottle is withdrawn. This prohibits the possibility of retaining the top plate 65 in its elevated position after the selected bottle has been withdrawn and then withdrawing other bottles from the machine. In other words, during the withdrawal of any selected bottle all of the elements 61 are locked in position against relative sliding movement by the bar 92 excepting the element above the bottle being withdrawn. This condition prevails until plate 65 is again gravitationally lowered allowing the locking bar 92 to drop to its forward position.

It will be noted that each tooth has a straight or horizontal upper edge and an upwardly and rearwardly inclined lower edge allowing the tooth to slide past the adjacent finger 90 when the finger is below the tooth and positively against the underside of the tooth when it is raised thereabove.

These is also provided a gate means for prohibiting the endmost bottle on shelf 54 from rolling onto an empty tray 42 while an opening 66 is in its open or expanded condition, thus prohibiting withdrawal of more than one bottle through the same opening during the same cycle of operation.

Each tray 42 excepting the bottom one has a gate 104 hinged to its inner side edge for swinging on a fore and aft axis, the gate depending from the tray a suflicient distance to block the passage of a bottle from shelf 54 onto the tray 42 therebelow. The gate is formed of a length of rod bent in a broad -U-shape with its end portions bent outwardly as at 105 and journaled in loops 106 formed at the side of the tray. At its forward terminal the gate is provided with an upwardly bent stop finger 108. The

gate is normally free to swing inwardly under the tray.

to which it is attached allowing a bottle to roll onto the tray 42 below. A vertical stop tab 109 is mounted on the back side of each plate 61 to project rearwardly normally below and to one side of the finger 108. When the plate 61 is raised, however, the stop moves upwardly into a position beside finger 108, to lock the gate in its depending position. Accordingly when any selected opening 66 is expanded for the withdrawal of a bottle from the tray 42 therebehind, the gate 104 over said tray is locked blocking the passage of thenext bottle into the tray.

To facilitate a smooth wedging action of the bottle as it slides between the plates 61 the contacted edges of the plates are preferably provided with friction reducing elements in the form of nylon edge covers 110' which may be cemented to the plates. Where the bottles used have a rather abrupt shoulder between the body and neck rather than the gradual taper, it is found advantageous to mount small rollers 111 on pintles secured to the plate edges such as shown in FIG. 9.

As hereinbefore described as a selected bottle B is withdrawn from the machine and the closure elements 61 return-to their normal closed position as in FIG. 1, the gate 104 will be released allowing the next bottle B to roll into the tray 44 just emptied. It is found that by supporting the body portions of the bottles in the row by rack 54 with the guide rod 50 disposed under the narrowest portions of the bottle necks, the bottles will roll smoothly toward the discharge station without turning. The rearward incline of discharge trays or stations 44 prohibits the possibility of removing a bottle cap and draining the bottle while it is still in the machine. Racks 54 are adjustable toward and away from guide rod 50 to accommodate bottles of various lengths by placing rod 59 in different sets of apertures 55 and 57.

It is understood that suitable modifications may be made in the structure as disclosed, provided such modifications come within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Having now therefore fully illustrated and described our invention, what we claim to be new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a selective vending machine, the combination of l a casing having means'for supporting a plurality of beverage bottles on their sides in spaced vertical alignment, a plurality of vertically aligned closure elements on the easing at the ends of the bottles normally positioned to partially expose the bottles to the outside of the casing while prohibiting-endwise removal of the bottle from the casing, each of said'closure elements disposed opposite one of the bottles and movable between its normal position and a releasing position allowing withdrawal of the bottle, a first locking means for locking all of the elements in their normal position, coin-controlled means on the machine for releasing said first locking means to allow movement of any selected closure element to its bottle releasing position, and a second locking means on the machine re sponsive to movement of any closure element to its releasing position to lock the remaining closure elements in their normal positions, said closure elements being respectively provided with vertically aligned catch means, and said second locking means comprising an elongated locking bar extending vertically within the casing, means mounting the bar on the casing for horizontal movement of the bar toward and away from the closure elements, and said bar having a series of spaced latch teeth for locking engagement with the respective catch means.

2. In a selective vending machine, the combination of an upright casing having front and back walls, means in the casing forming a vertical row of discharge stations extending in fore and aft direction between said walls, each station adapted to support a tapered necked capped beverage bottle with the cap end forward, the front wall having a vertical opening extending along the front end of the stations, a plurality of closure elements on the casing normally projecting in locked condition into said openingone in front of each station to prohibit forward removal of a bottle from the station through the opening while allowing exposure of the capped ends thereof, means locking said elements in said normal locked condition, coin-control means on the machine for releasing the locking means to allow any selected closure element to be moved to an out of the way position by pulling the bottle therebehind forwardly through the opening, an elongated latch bar disposed vertically within the casing adjacent said closure elements and movably mounted for movement toward and away therefrom, said bar having latch teeth for engaging and locking said closure elements in locked condition as it is moved toward the elements, and means associating each closure element with the latch bar to move the bar toward and into locking engagement with the remaining elements as any selected element is moved to its out of the way position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES'PATENTS 2,232,619 MacCartee et a1 Feb. 18, 1941 2,332,214 Forsthoefel et al. Oct. 19, 1943 2,446,807 Blair et al Aug, 10, 1948 2,473,054 Donaldson et al June 14, 1949 2,531,347 Voigtritter Nov. 21, 1950 2,727,654 Childers et al Dec/20, 1955 2,766,906 Bookout et al Oct. 16, 1956 2,819,815 Stumbaugh Jan. 14, 1958 2,875,922 Hsu et al. Mar. 3, 1958 2,898,001 Johnson Aug. 4, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 91,774 Sweden Mar. 18, 1938 

